Corey Stoll biography

The Seagull

Corey Stoll was born in New York City and grew up in a progressive household. His father was an English teacher and he attended theater camp as a kid.

He graduated from Ohio's Oberlin College in 1998 and then took up studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Corey graduated in 2003, signed with an agent and began working on Broadway. Some of his bigger productions include 2007's Old Acquaintance and the 2010 revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge.

The actor first appeared onscreen in the 2001 short Okénka, which he followed up with television work. He guest-starred on episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2004), Charmed (2004), NYPD Blue (2004), Alias (2005) and Numb3rs (2005). In 2005, he made his first feature film appearance with a minor role in North Country. The Oscar-nominated drama with Charlize Theron, Jeremy Renner and Frances McDormand is a fictional account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States (which reached the courts in 1984).

Corey went back to television for an episode of each of the following series: ER (2005), CSI: Miami (2005), Law & Order (2006) and Without A Trace (2006). He then joined forces with Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu and Morgan Freeman in the 2006 crime drama Lucky Number Slevin. Also in 2006, he began playing a recurring part on the show NCIS, which he would fill for three episodes, ending in 2007.

Corey won a breakthrough part in 2011 when he portrayed Ernest Hemingway in Midnight in Paris. The feature was written and directed by Woody Allen, and also stars Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates. Corey has since said that he prepared for the role of Ernest by reading the famed author's work to his girlfriend at the time (who's now his wife). For his "scene-stealing" work in the film, as The New Yorker called it, Corey was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards. Midnight in Paris went on to earn four Oscar nominations, nabbing a win in the Best Original Screenplay category. It also won a Golden Globe.

In 2013, Corey began filling the role of alcoholic congressman Peter Russo in the highly successful, Kevin Spacey-led series House of Cards. Since he started, he's appeared in 12 episodes of the show. It was a fruitful role for Corey, who nabbed a 2013 Critics Choice Television Award nomination and 2014 Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for TV.

Also in 2014, Corey began playing CDC scientist Ephraim Goodweather in the FX thriller series The Strain, which is about a mysterious viral outbreak that leads to vampirism in New York. For much of his role in the series, which is executive produced by Guillermo del Toro, bald Corey donned a hair piece. The show continues to run and Corey has appeared in the starring role in 36 episodes.

Corey returned to TV in 2016 as gay newscaster Dill Harcourt in four episodes of Girls before reuniting with Woody Allen for the romcom Café Society. In the feature film, Corey plays a 1930s Jewish gangster named Ben Dorfman, who he described to The New Yorker in August 2016 as "a working man who just happens to bury people in concrete." Café Society co-stars Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell.